ATLANTA (April 26, 2018) – Johann Koss, a four time Olympic Gold medalist and Founder of Right to Play, and Ashley Marcus of the University of Pennsylvania each received the 14th Annual Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup at Atlanta’s Cobb Galleria Centre Wednesday night.  In the high school division, in partnership with the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association, Cups were awarded to Hope Baldwin, Hackett Catholic Prep in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Ethan Shuster of Shelton High School in Shelton, Connecticut. The Cup, in the words of Athletes for a Better World’s founder, Fred Northup, is “not for the best athlete, or the best student, but for the best person in the world of sports.” Previous recipients, including Jack Nicklaus, Mia Hamm, Cal Ripken, Peyton Manning, Pat Summitt and others, have made the Cup one of the most prestigious awards in sports, given its emphasis on character and its openness to athletes in all sports.
Read More »

Sadie Frame of First Presbyterian Day School, and Wesley Simpson of Union Grove High School were named as the recipients of the four-year scholarship of $1000 per year by legendary Coach Vince Dooley on May 12, 2018 at a ceremony held at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.  More than 550 student-athletes and guests attended the event which featured inspirational messages from Coach Dooley, Executive Director of the Georgia High School Association Dr. Robin Hines, and ABW Founder/President Fred Northup.  All enjoyed a breakfast meal, compliments of The Chick-fil-A Foundation.  The Hudgens Family Foundation was once again the Presenting Sponsor for the event.
Read More »

The professional recipient, Johann Koss, is a four time Gold Medalist, the Founder of Right to Play, and an international humanitarian.

Koss made his Olympic debut at the 1992 Winter Olympics, finishing seventh in the 5,000m, five days after undergoing surgery because of an inflamed pancreas. He would recover to win gold in the 1,500m (by only 0.04 seconds over his countryman Ådne Søndrål) and silver in the 10,000m (behind Dutch skater Bart Veldkamp).

In 1994, the final year of his speed skating career, Koss also gained fame outside the speed skating world by winning three gold medals at the 1994 Winter Olympics in his native Norway, winning all races in new world records, two of which would remain unbeaten until the clap skate era. For his performance, he was named Sports Illustrated magazine’s Sportsman of the Year in 1994, together with Bonnie Blair. In addition, he received the Oscar Mathisen Award for speed skating three times: in 1990, 1991, and 1994.

After his speed skating career, Koss trained as a physician at the University of Queensland in Australia. He became a UNICEF ambassador and a member of the International Olympic Committee (until 2002).

In 2000 Koss founded the Canadian-based International Humanitarian Organization Right To Play, which uses sport and play as a tool for the development of children and youth in the most disadvantaged areas of the world. The organization operates in more than 20 countries reaching over one million children each week and is supported by more than 620 staff worldwide and over 14,900 volunteer Coaches. In August 2015, Koss transitioned into the role of Founder at Right To Play where he still stays very active in a variety of fundraising initiatives, and where he maintains his seat on the International Board of Directors.

Koss completed his Executive MBA at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management in the University of Toronto in Canada. He has Honorary Doctorates from several universities – Brock University, University of Calgary, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, and the University of Agder in Norway. On 1 July 2015, Koss was made an honorary Member of the Order of Canada.

Koss and his wife Jennifer live in Toronto and have three children, Aksel, Annabelle and Andreas.

Athletes for a Better World (ABW) and The National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) have formed a partnership to annually recognize one male and one female national NIAAA scholarship winner as automatic recipients of the prestigious Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup.  These two high school athletes will join one collegiate winner and a professional recipient each year as exemplary role models of the ABW Code for Living.  The recipients of the high school class of 2017 are Hope Baldwin and Ethan Shuster who will receive the Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup on April 25, 2018 at the Atlanta banquet.  ABW Executive Director Brad Catherman and NIAAA Executive Director Mike Blackburn celebrated this achievement with the two recipients at the Opening General Session of the National Athletic Directors Conference conducted December 8, 2017 in Phoenix, Arizona

The NIAAA Student Scholarship/Essay competition recognizes distinguished high school student athletes in the attribute areas of scholastics, leadership, citizenship, participation, volunteerism and the importance of school sports participation in the student’s life.  The ABW Code for Living criteria have been incorporated into the scholarship application by asking applicants to reflect upon the tenets of life lessons learned through sport and how they relate and impact their life.  The ABW book entitled Winning More Than the Game challenges readers to consider the Code for Living via exercises, as a springboard for life qualities of character development

Following are profiles of the two recipients:

Hope Vera Baldwin – Hackett Catholic Prep High School, Kalamazoo, Michigan

Hope’s parents are mother, Suzann Hartzell Baldwin, and the late Roger Baldwin. Hope graduated from Hackett Catholic Prep High School, Kalamazoo, Michigan, with a grade point average of 4.00. She is attending the University of Notre Dame studying Neuroscience. The Athletic Director at Hackett Catholic Prep High School is Mike Garvey, CMAA.  Hope earned nine varsity letters in her high school career, playing the sports of volleyball, basketball and soccer. She served as captain of the volleyball and basketball teams during her senior season. Hope was very active in her school as

Vice-president of her senior class and the National Honor Society. She also was involved in the student leadership team and student athletic advisory board.  In the community, Hope was a volunteer working with Migrant Ministry, Kalamazoo Valley Children’s Museum and she worked as a volunteer for the United States Tennis Association Nationals at the Zoo. She participated in Caring Network and the American Cancer Discovery Shop.

Ethan Shuster – Shelton High School, Shelton, Connecticut

Ethan is the son of Barb and Keith Shuster.  He graduated with a grade point average of 96.8% weighted on a scale of 100%.  Ethan is attending University of Connecticut, studying pre-med, and plans to be an anesthesiologist.  The athletic director at Shelton High School is John Niski.  Ethan earned eight varsity letters participating in soccer and indoor and outdoor track and field, while serving as captain of his track teams.  He was honored as a Wendy’s Heisman State Finalist.  Ethan was a member of National Honor Society and volunteered in the Annual blood drive, while participating in Junior State of America that helped prepare him for government issues within his community and state.  Ethan’s community activities included volunteering at Norwalk Hospital, where he served over 275 hours in the areas of operating room orderly, post anesthesia care unit, ambulatory care and transporting patients in and out of surgery and the pathology department.

The Scholarship Competition:  Students from 50 state athletic administrator associations, plus the District of Columbia, were able to submit a nomination form and essay.  The male and female winners were then screened by one of the eight Sections in which their state resides, creating eight male and eight female Section winners.  The NIAAA Board of Directors then evaluated the finalist’s scholastic record, athletic participation accomplishments, citizenship and leadership credentials on its way to selecting one male and one female national recipient.  Both recipients were on hand in Phoenix to receive their national scholarship of $2500, a personal trophy, a plaque for their high school and to read their winner essay entitled How High School Athletics Have Impacted My Life.  The total scholarship earned by the two national recipients was $4000.

About the NIAAA: The NIAAA is based in Indianapolis, Indiana, and is the national leadership organization for high school and middle school athletic administrators.  With current individual membership of over 10,000 the NIAAA consists of athletic administrators from associations in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Internationally.  The NIAAA leads in providing professional development for athletic administrators, serving as a resource and provider of safe and plentiful participation opportunities for the nation’s 7.9 million student-athletes.  With conducting education-based athletic programs as the focus, NIAAA membership provides opportunity for professional development, education, certification, national award recognition and exchange of ideas with athletic administrators throughout the world.

The 14th Annual Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup, an award given to the most outstanding role models among athletes, has announced the professional, collegiate, and high school honorees for its 2018 award ceremony, to be held April 25 at Atlanta’s Cobb Galleria. Bob Ryan, the famed sportswriter for the Boston Globe and analyst for ESPN, will serve as the Master of Ceremonies.

Founded by Athletes for a Better World (ABW), a non-profit organization committed to changing the culture of American sports, the Wooden Cup is unique in that it is open to athletes in all high school, collegiate and Olympic or professional sports. Nominations are open to every division and conference in college sports and to athletes in public and private high schools across the country in a partnership with the National Association of High School Athletic Administrators.

The Wooden Cup is named for John Wooden, who won ten national championships during the years 1964–1975 as basketball coach at UCLA and is considered one of college sports’ greatest coaches.  But it was Wooden’s emphasis on character development in his players and his dedication to community service that drew ABW’s attention.  “John Wooden is universally regarded as one of the finest human beings to ever grace the world of sports, and his character, conduct and selfless gifts stand at the highest level by any standard,” said Fred Northup, ABW President. When Coach Wooden learned about Athletes for a Better World, he authorized ABW to attach his name to this annual award, and Coach Wooden attended and addressed the inaugural event in Los Angeles in 2005. In his honor, the Wooden Cup has been presented to two distinguished athletes, one collegiate and one professional or Olympic, for character and leadership both on and off the field and for contributions to sport and society. For the second year, the Wooden Cup, in partnership with the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association, will recognize two high school athletes as recipients in the high school division. 

The professional recipient, Johann Koss, is a four time Gold Medalist, the Founder of Right to Play, and an international humanitarian.

Koss made his Olympic debut at the 1992 Winter Olympics, finishing seventh on the 5,000 m, five days after undergoing surgery because of an inflamed pancreas. He would recover to win gold on the 1,500 m (by only 0.04 seconds over his countryman Ådne Søndrål) and silver on the 10,000 m (behind Dutch skater Bart Veldkamp).

In 1994, the final year of his speed skating career, Koss also gained fame outside the speed skating world by winning three gold medals at the 1994 Winter Olympics in his native Norway, winning all races in new world records, two of which would remain unbeaten until the clap skate era. For his performance, he was named Sports Illustrated magazine’s Sportsman of the Year in 1994, together with Bonnie Blair. In addition, he received the Oscar Mathisen Award for speed skating three times: in 1990, 1991, and 1994.

After his speed skating career, Koss trained as a physician at the University of Queensland in Australia. He became a UNICEF ambassador and a member of the International Olympic Committee (until 2002).

In 2000 Koss founded the Canadian-based International Humanitarian Organization, Right To Play, which uses sport and play as a tool for the development of children and youth in the most disadvantaged areas of the world. The organization operates in more than 20 countries reaching over one million children each week and is supported by more than 620 staff worldwide and over 14,900 volunteer Coaches.  In August 2015, Koss transitioned in to the role of Founder at Right To Play where he still stays very active in a variety of fundraising initiatives, and where he maintains his seat on the International Board of Directors.

Koss completed his Executive MBA at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management in the University of Toronto in Canada. He has Honorary Doctorates from several universities – Brock University, University of Calgary, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, and the University of Agder in Norway. On 1 July 2015, Koss was made an honorary Member of the Order of Canada.

Koss and his wife Jennifer live in Toronto and have three children Aksel, Annabelle and Andreas.

The 2018 Collegiate Wooden Cup recipient will be announced at the April 25 award ceremony. Finalists for the collegiate division include:

Ashley Marcus, University of Pennsylvania, Fencing

Hannah Menk, University of Redlands, Soccer

Patrick Mohorcic, The College of Wooster, Football

Stephen Rizzo, Marist College, Cross Country

The high school recipients this year are Hope Vera Baldwin, Hackett Catholic Prep High School, Kalamazoo, Michigan and Ethan Shuster, Shelton High School, Shelton, Connecticut.

Master of Ceremonies Bob Ryan will bring extraordinary experience and perspective to the evening’s events.  He has been named “Sportswriter of the Year” four times in recognition of his work at ESPN and the Boston Globe.  He is a member of the College Basketball Writers Hall of Fame, the New England Basketball Hall of Fame, a winner of the Curt Gowdy Award from the Basketball Hall of Fame, and, perhaps most notably, a recipient of the Red Smith Award for sports journalism.

The Wooden Cup is becoming one of the most prestigious awards in all of sports. Previous professional recipients include Jack Nicklaus, Pat Summitt, Dikembe Mutombo, Drew Brees, Mia Hamm, Peyton Manning, John Smoltz, John Lynch, Andrea Yaeger, Shannon Miller and Cal Ripken, Jr.  Recipients of the Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup are determined by the Wooden Cup Selection Committee after reviewing voting by the Board of Directors and over 100 distinguished individuals involved in athletics across the country.

A few days ago there was a story about a family who was sitting behind Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Mohamed Sanu on a plane flight.  Before landing, the mother gave him a note which read: “Hi!  You don’t know us but we wanted to thank you.  Our son sat behind you on this flight and watched you.  He saw you studying your plays, watched you make healthy choices with your food and snacks, food and drink.  He watched how polite you were to everyone.  He is only 10 but he just made an elite hockey team and we are on our way to training in CT.  You are an inspiration to children and for that you should be proud!  Thank you and best of luck!  The family that sat behind you.  :)”

It’s important to remember that we are all role models – because for good or ill people see the things we do, and hear the things we say.  It’s not just when we think people are watching, it’s all the time!  What are the times you can remember when someone did something that you admired?  What are the times when someone did something you did not admire?  Ask these questions of your team, or of some of your friends.  Does anything surprise you in the answers?

Remember the preamble to the Code for Living: “Because I am a role model with the opportunity and the responsibility to make a difference in the lives of others, I commit to this Code…”

ATLANTA (April 12, 2017) – Hall of Fame sportscaster Dick Vitale and Joe Spencer of the University of Illinois each received the 13th Annual Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup at Atlanta’s Cobb Galleria Centre on Wednesday night. Special recognition was also given to Chris Singleton of Charleston Southern, plus Erin Houchins and Ian Saum each received the first high school division awards. The Cup, in the words of Athletes for a Better World’s founder, Fred Northup, is “not for the best athlete, or the best student, but for the best person in the world of sports.” Previous recipients, including Jack Nicklaus, Mia Hamm, Cal Ripken, Peyton Manning, Pat Summitt and others, have made the Cup one of the most prestigious awards in sports, given its emphasis on character and its openness to athletes in all sports.
Read More »

Anna Katherine Cates of Darlington School, and Noah Shepard were named as the recipients of the four-year scholarship of $1000 per year by legendary Coach Vince Dooley on April 29, 2017 at a ceremony held at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.  Nearly 300 student-athletes and guests attended the event which featured inspirational messages from Coach Dooley, ABW Founder/President Fred Northup, and Atlanta Public Schools’ Assistant Director of Athletics Kandice Mitchell.  In attendance was last year’s speaker and special guest Carror Wright of the Georgia High School Association.  All enjoyed a breakfast meal, compliments of Chick-fil-A.  The Hudgens Family Foundation was once again the Presenting Sponsor for the event.
Read More »

Dick Vitale is well known as college basketball’s top analyst and ambassador. Vitale joined ESPN during the 1979-80 season following a successful college and pro coaching career. Vitale called ESPN’s first-ever NCAA basketball game and over 1,000 games since.His thorough knowledge of the game is brought forth in an enthusiastic, passionate, and never boring style. Vitale’s numerous honors reflect the respect he has earned for his contributions to sport and to the larger community and are highlighted by his inclusion in nine Halls of Fame, including the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Most importantly, Vitale is a tireless philanthropist. He was a founding member of the Board of Directors of The V Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to finding a cure for cancer, and founded in 1993 by ESPN and the late Jim Valvano who died of the disease that year. Since its beginning, the V Foundation has awarded over $170 million in grants for research.Vitale’s primary interest is in children’s cancer and he has been tireless in his efforts. He co-chairs the annual V Foundation Golf Classic and is preparing to host the 12^th Annual Dick Vitale – V Foundation Gala in Sarasota, which raised nearly $3 million last year alone.

Born in East Rutherford, N.J., Vitale graduated from Seton Hall University with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration and earned a master’s degree in education from William Paterson College. He and his wife, Lorraine, have two daughters.